


Sideways House

by Merrinpippy (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Fuckery, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Marriage, Memory Loss, POV First Person, Symbolism, Unreliable Narrator, but it's not like that either!, but it's not-- it's not like that, it's also not like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 00:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14031999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Merrinpippy
Summary: Harry is getting ready to marry Tom in the Sideways House. But nothing is exactly as it seems, and taking what he knows at face value may prove to be his ultimate downfall.





	Sideways House

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm pip and I like themes

The following is the last document ever written by H. J. Potter. It was penned shortly before his death and transcripted from his almost illegible handwriting. This document is largely believed to be his suicide note. The case remains open.

Not to be removed from our archives until released by the Ministry. Auror and Unspeakable access only.

_Quidditch around the Sideways House._

_A weird place to start, but I did start there. I’m not sure quite how I got there, but the only thing I knew was that I’d been kicked out of a house by Snape and Dumbledore some time earlier. There was something important that I was supposed to… to do... I lost the game. I guess that should have warned me about what was about to happen, right?_

_I don’t lose Quidditch games._

_Whatever._

_After an indefinable amount of time- might have been days, might have been seconds- I found myself_ inside _the Sideways House. It actually reminded me of Hogwarts somewhat, and although this place seemed far less friendly I felt infinitely safer in it. So yeah. I was on a staircase, one of many that occupied a big, a big open space, so that if there was anyone on_ any _staircase, you could see them. And there_ were _people. I just didn’t know why yet._

_I should probably describe- it might help-_

_The Sideways House itself was massive and dilapidated. Everything seemed to be... tinged with sepia, no matter how hard I focused on it. Although I said it did remind me of Hogwarts, these stairs weren’t made of stone. They were made of worn wood and rope, like in the old sort of Indiana Jones movies style, I think. I mean I only ever caught glimpses of it through the keyhole, so I could be talking complete- it doesn’t matter._

_As soon as I saw him, as suave as I’d ever seen him, something clicked into place. Tom Riddle was- was pulling me into a kiss, and we were here because we were getting married. I was shocked, but in a numb sort of way. Detached._

_It didn’t look like a marriage, but that was why there were people. Tom… he was dressed nicely but simply, in a white dress shirt and smart black trousers. I have no idea what I was wearing. It was probably a blue shirt and jeans. I’m dependable like that._

_When he pulled back, he caught my eye, smiled crookedly, and said, “We have to stop meeting like this.” I felt like I should know what he meant. I didn’t. “Shall we? We may as well enjoy the party. It’s so rare I get to see you, after all.”_

_The party. Yes. The party being thrown for my wedding. My wedding to Tom Riddle._

_There were crowds of people gathered in the rooms or on the staircases. The only one I recognised was- my mum. Lily. I rushed over to her, overcome with emotion, and then everything kind of phased a little, and then I had been talking to her like nothing was wrong and mingling for an hour, before Tom got everyone’s attention by just, utilising his presence I guess. I was reluctant to stop talking to Lily, but she squeezed my hand and planted herself beside me. We faced Tom together._

_He told us he was going to leave, temporarily. He made his way over to me, leaned over, and spoke to me under his breath. The guests went back to their conversations at a low hum._

_“I’ll be back soon, I promise, but in the meantime I need to ask you a favour.”_

_“Sure.”_

_“Take the party into that room up there,” Tom pointed up to indicate the topmost room of the Sideways House. “Do whatever it is you do at parties, and when you’re done, trash the place. And I really mean trash it. Destroy it. Think Battle of Hogwarts levels of destruction. I’ll be back very soon.”_

_He kissed my hand and then he was gone._

_It felt like a missed opportunity. It felt like there was something I was supposed to tell him, but forgot. I tried to shake the feeling off. It didn’t quite go away._

_We did take the party into the topmost room. It was filled with chocolate, like easter eggs, on every flat surface, but otherwise the decor was antique and old. I think there was meant to be a bed in the corner that was removed, and one of the armoires had scorch marks on it. I smashed and snapped off a piece of one of the eggs and ate it while my mum talked at me. The other guests were both drunk and strangers, so I did my best to stay out of their way, and although the guests were very raucous, they did not quite understand like I did that Tom really meant destroy the place, and by the time half an hour- or what seemed like half an hour- had passed, most of them had filtered from the room into other, lower rooms. The topmost room was still intact. I remember a nagging sensation I got then, telling me I had to destroy the room for Tom’s sake. I got the impression that Tom didn’t like the room for reasons relating to his past, which was absurd because I_ watched _his past and never encountered the Sideways House._

_But Dumbledore didn’t know Tom like I did. I knew this. I knew this. Only then did I consider that the house belonged to Tom._

_Mum had disappeared while I was musing, but she found me then, smiled, and offered me two rings. “From Tom,” she explained, slipping them both on my fingers. They went easily. My hands were slightly sweaty._

_One of them looked like a pair of black wings, turning one of my fingers into some kind of body, like a bird. A phoenix, perhaps. The other ring was large and circular and had gem chips peeking out of its mould. It reminded me of a cookie, which made me hungry for more chocolate. Hadn’t I eaten recently? Remus always did recommend chocolate for fatal situations._

_Not fatal situations. What was the word… stressful. It wasn’t stressful. What was the word? Situations like these, I guess. My hands shook on the chocolate. I guess I was cold. Or at least I thought so at the time._

_I wished that Hermione was there, because there was some missing piece to the puzzle that I was sure she would know the answer to, if only she was there. She would probably tell me to take the rings off. She would probably tell me not to drink the tea._

_I suspected it was Mum who wanted me to have the rings and not Tom. It should have shaken me to my core, to see my mum here and alive, but I guess that wasn’t the point. But- anyway- it just wasn’t Tom’s style. I didn’t let it show, but I did reach into my pocket instinctively. My phone was in there._

_I’d never owned a phone before. But I knew how to unlock it and text Tom, which I did:_

Are the rings from you?

_We were all but alone in the topmost room of the Sideways House. We sat in silence. Mum took off her shawl and fanned herself. I wanted to stare at her, to never let her out of my sight, but the part of me that knew what I was doing also knew that I had no shortage of time with her. So I ate some more chocolate. My chest ached a little. I was still shaking from the cold._

_“Tom’s been gone for a long time, hasn’t he?” I said, because I had nothing else to say._

_“Isn’t that him there?” Mum responded, gliding over to the door. I rushed after her, and she directed my attention over the bannister. In the open space we could see him below us, stalking down the lowest set of old wooden stairs to the lowest room. I didn’t know what that room was, but it exuded a dark kind of energy. Voldemort’s energy, perhaps. Tom didn’t look our way, but I could tell he was at least a little angry. Or confused, I thought. Frustrated. It didn’t bode well. I was worried for him, and I turned to my mum._

_She looked at me knowingly. “The Teenage Room,” she said. What was the Teenage Room? What did that mean? I didn’t know. She was worried, though, too. We spoke, though I can’t remember what we said, and we wondered what he was doing in there. My mind went to horcruxes or some other sort of dark magic._

_Her mind went to cheating._

_I was… surprised._

_Jarred._

_Surely if Tom wanted to cheat on me he could do it some other day? When we weren’t getting married? Or he could break up with me first? I didn’t think he was cheating on me, and-_

_Was this really what I was supposed to be focusing on? Yes. No. Yes. No, I'm too immersed in the_

_\- I said as much, but as I considered it more I felt a sort of resigned acceptance._ _And I don’t know where it came from, but I said, “Whatever he’s doing, it doesn’t matter. As long as we do what he told us, I’ll be fine.”_

_And with that, I began to remove the chocolate from the room, so that I could destroy it as per Tom’s request. When all of the chocolate was gone, I was triumphant. Ha! It occurred to me, as I prepared to hit something, that magic was not something everyone had here. I had no evidence to prove this, I just knew. I used a bit to throw something across the room,_ Wingardium Leviosa. _There. I had started it. But I didn’t use magic again. It didn’t feel right._

_Mum joined me in trashing everything she could get her hands on, and at the commotion, some of the guests came up to see what I was doing._

_I received a text._

No.

_And then,_

Funny we have phones here. I do have a ring for you, though. If it matters.

_I stared at my phone for a while. He didn’t_ seem _angry at me. But how could I tell? I bit my lip, considered, and then sent a text back._

Are you okay?

_The wait for Tom to text back now wasn’t half as long as it was before._

Oh, Harry.

_I was confused, and I went back to trashing things so I wasn’t staring at those vague words. By now the room was full of people doing as Tom had asked. I was proud. I was also wary, for the first time, of Tom’s opinion of me. Eventually though, he did text me back._

Yes, I’m more than okay. I’ll be up soon, my love.

_Relief. So much relief. Why? I didn’t even know if he was telling the truth, but I knew he must have been, I knew inexplicably, as one does in dreams, that Tom was feeling a rush of affection for me. He found my question endearing. I was… confused, as to how I knew this. But content. It was the way it should be, I thought. Things would be okay because Tom was okay and I was okay._

_Except._

_A sharp pain on my forehead, where my scar should be. I reeled and brought my hand up. It came away dripping with blood. Mum was screaming. Someone was apologising._

_“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t even throw it at you, it just- I don’t know, it- flew at you!”_

_The easiest conclusion to draw from this was that Tom had cursed me, or a guest had cursed me, but I knew immediately that neither of these were the case._

_I couldn’t perform healing magic, and neither could any of the guests. There was a river of blood sprouting from a spring in my head, making estuaries on my glasses. I was dizzy, and... I... collapsed... on the floor. It hurt. Now everything was sideways. I took out my phone. Handy thing._

fun http I’ve been not

_My fingers slipped on the keys. Blood was obscuring the screen. It hurt._

_Tom texted me back,_

?

_And then,_

Are you drunk?

_I groaned. It hurt. Like needles in the brain. There was movement all around me. Someone was trying to hold something to my forehead, to keep the blood in. This was what I had wanted to tell Tom before. It hurt. I tried again._

Tom

he’ll

HELP

_It was only a second later that I heard, distantly, a door slam open. Then a great whooshing of air, and then I felt his presence in the room. I saw his aristocratic shoes. He was at my side immediately._

_“Harry,” was the first thing he said. Everyone moved back to give us space. He rested his long, graceful fingers on my head, and I felt his magic begin to work. It softened the pain, but the river did not slow. “Curse magic,” was the second thing he said, and this time his voice was tinged with disgust. “More than that. Poison. Is there anyone who-?”_

_“Snape. Dumbledore.” I answered immediately. And I remembered: Ah yes. They had kicked me out of their house a few days before, when they found out I was getting married to Tom. It was the first thing I experienced, and it didn’t make sense. But then, none of this dream, this vision, made sense to me. “I don’t understand,” I said out loud._

_Tom cradled me close to him. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t see, but I_ felt _his anger, his desperation, but also his love for me. Earlier I might have been surprised or disgusted, lost as I was in this strange reality. Right now I was ambivalent. I didn’t have it in me to be anything else._

_But I do remember thinking. I remember thinking,_ you know, Tom Riddle’s not that bad after all.

_“I need you to really think,” Tom was saying._

_“I am,” I replied. He was relieved. I realised I had not responded to him in over a minute._

_“Have you spoken to them recently? Think now Harry, really. Either Snape or Dumbledore.”_

_I blinked. It was about all I could do. “I got kicked out-”_

“No,” _he practically growled. He gritted his teeth and then he held me tighter._ “Outside. _Think outside. You know what I’m talking about. You’re real, I know you are.”_

_“I-I…” I really thought about it. I really did. But I couldn’t summon any memory of anything before being kicked out, except… well…_

_I was in two places at once. And I thought Tom… well. I won’t say that, in case this gets into the wrong hands. Needless to say I understood what Tom wanted me to say, and I said it._

_I said, “Yes, just this morning I had tea with Dumbledore, and then… this.”_

_He said, “You drank the tea?”_

_I said, “I did.”_

_He said, “You shouldn’t have drank the tea.” He was angry, but not at me._

_I said, “I know that now. I was trying to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t remember.”_

_He said, “I tried to save you.”_

_I said, “I tried to listen.”_

_He said, “I’ll find you, I swear it. Next time, I’ll find you and I’ll kill them all.”_

_I said, “Maybe we can really get married next time.”_

_He dropped his head to the crook of my neck and shook, and he said, “Harry, if I’d have known-”_

_And then my time ran out._

_Oh thank Merlin, I really have been writing this whole time. Suppose it’s not more impressive than resisting the imperius curse. Fuck. It was the_

The rest of the document was stained with ink and tea. A copy of the original can be found in the same folder. It is notable that S. Snape and A. P. W. B. Dumbledore attempted to access the original document shortly after Potter’s death, before this document was finished being typewritten. Neither could access it due to protections placed by Potter himself, and out of respect, this document too has protections against either man accessing it until the case is closed.

**Author's Note:**

> ....
> 
> Aaand thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment or chat with me on tumblr @merrinpippy :)


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